Chi of Tea

I finished the last of this up today. It is a very sad day. I decided to take it to the next level, and I had it with cream and a little vanlla sugar, and it was Heaven (with a capital H) in a cup. Especially since this is the first time I have had tea in a couple of weeks. I can’t believe it has been that long – I haven’t been well and I seemed to lose all interest in my tea! This was the perfect way to start back with the tea habit, though.

My stash of this is getting depleted worryingly quickly. This batch isn’t as creamy as the last one, but it still is very smooth and creamy. This is my most favourite vanilla tea – it isn’t too sweet and it tastes very natural.

I ordered this again a few weeks ago but they only had 1 ounce left, so I couldn’t stock up like I wanted to. Glad I got it again though – this batch isn’t quite as creamy and the nilgiri is a little more prominent, but it is stil delicious. So glad to have this back in my cupboard!

I love vanilla teas, so when I saw this on the Chi of Tea website, I knew I had to order some (hooray for flat rate international shipping!).

As soon as I open the package, I can smell a lovely creamy vanilla-y scent. I’m in heaven! The tea leaves themselves are very attractive – small, sort of rolled and dark.

I can’t wait for this one to steep! The scent as it steeps is sooo good – I can smell the black tea base as well as the flavourings.

I love this. It is so tasty. Even more creamy than I expected, with lovely vanilla notes and a good tea base. I am kicking myself now – why didn’t I order more?! Definitely one to purchase again, I think.

Sometimes it’s hard to tell when to go to the doctor. And it seems to me that when I get there, my symptoms mysteriously vanish, only to return once I leave. Severe body and chest aches mean I want something comforting. And I have to wait ’till tomorrow to get my prescription antibiotics.

I though this tea would make me feel better. I usually am strict about caffeine-free after 5, but I am so dead on my feet I doubt it’ll matter (and this is no black tea). Orange and ginger are great when one is ill, so I just had to make this one again.

Mmm the orange complements the earthiness of the tea so well. Chi of Tea has great orange flavoring- so bright. I feel better just sipping this… good tea is like cold medicine for adults anyway.
I must have had green oolong before, but I can’t recall it. It definitely has a bit of the grassiness of green, with the telltale oolong taste to it. That’s my probably ill-informed and inaccurate feeling lousy and lazy assessment anyway.

Do try this one… it’s really nice.

Brews a dark brown, almost like coffee dark. An honest tasting tea. Earthy like pu-erhs normally are but not grassy or like hay. The yunnan seems to moderate any bitterness and smooths it out. Of the pu-erhs I have tried, this is the best so far.

Smells definitely of orange when dry. Like orange vitamins. Brews into an orange tinged liqueur. Mildly sweet, couldn’t really taste the florals. Reminded me overall of chalky orange medicine. Not altogether bad, but it won’t go in my normal rotation. I don’t care much for pu-erh though and I did like this better than the pu-erhs I have previously tasted. Not as earthy.

A very classic Darjeeling taste. Good color. Smells like I think tea should smell, but I tend to drink Darjeeling as my every day tea so I am probably biased. Mild earthy notes in the aroma with the mild muscatel as in the company description. Good hot, better mildly cold to room temperature where the flavor notes really come to the fore.

I was a bit skeptical at first, but I taste no panda paw in this, nor is there any fur, so I hope Chi of Tea can keep this available. :)

Finished off the last of this sample. It wasn’t quite enough tea leaves so it was a little weak. Perhaps the weakness of this last cup will keep me from immediately ordering more. But, I did look and it’s only $3 for an ounce so it is definitely going on the shopping list. I also noticed that Chi of Tea is selling samples for a dollar. I love dollar samples. So, I see myself ordering this tea and some samples (esp the coconut nilgiri) soon.

This might be one of the best smelling teas ever. I opened the package and smelled a strong candy-like smell of vanilla and caramel. It smelled so good that I was very skimpy with the tea leaves so I could make sure that I had at least two cups of it. Once brewed it still smells pretty good and has a nice real vanilla flavor. It reminds me a lot of Harney’s Vanilla Comoro but maybe a bit better. This is a really nice tea.

Thanks much JoeCool (Nichole) for sending me a sample of this.

1 tsp/10 oz.

Someone on the board had a Keemun related question. I answered it to the best of my abilities and decided it was inspiring me.

So I went and made me a cup. It’s been a while since I’ve had Keemun. The smoky overtone to it and the sweetness and grainyness of the body.

Didn’t come out so awesomely today, though. My timer has run out of battery and I can’t for the life of me find a new one in that size! That’s what you get when you buy a cheap kitchen timer.

Following the success I’ve had with the two first teas I’ve tried from Chi of Tea, I’ve been looking rather forward to this Keemun. It wasn’t one that I put a lot of thought into when I ordered it, it was just a Keemun and it seemed unnatural not to try it out as it’s a type I’m coming to enjoy more and more. (Strangely, I don’t feel the same urge to try every single Lapsang that crosses my path in spite of that being another favourite. Maybe it’s something to do with already having found my Perfect LS, and so I feel no need to explore further for the time being.)

The leaves, when dry, aren’t very loud on the aroma. They have a some smoke to the aroma, but on the whole it’s fairly unobtrusive in strength.

After steeping, it’s stronger. The smoke note is clear and there’s tons of that grain-y sweetness underneath it. Chi of Tea have found notes of plums in it as well, but I can’t find those. Completely scrunching my face up in concentration isn’t helping.

This is surprisingly strong! Okay, so maybe I used a wee bit more leaf than usual but not that much.

The first thing I notice is the smoky notes. They are loud and clear and delightfully prickly.

Second thing is the grain-y note that always reminds me of freshly baked rye bread. I’m coming to associate that particular note quite heavily with Keemuns. I’ve seen it in other teas as well, but to me it’s primarily a Keemun note.

Thirdly, there’s the last part of the sip, just when swallowing, and there we do indeed have it. It’s not 100% plum to me, but it’s definitely something plum-like. How interesting! I would never have thought to find plums in a Keemun before. I’m really very intrigued by this.

I like this! I can’t tell if it’s my Perfect Keemun or not, because I can’t tell them that much apart, but it’s definitely something that makes me want to revisit other Keemuns and see if I can find plum-like notes in those as well. If I can, then it’s back to square one. If not, this is a definite candidate. It’s definitely one that I’m likely to revisit.

Twice I opened my tea cabinet and twice this tea fell out and hit me on the head. A sign that it was time to try? Perhaps. I took it on.

First, I’m not at all a fan of orange in tea. (Usually not lemon or other citrus fruits either, but not always.) I received this as a sample from Chi of Tea. Frankly, if left to me, I never would have possessed this tea. The scent upon opening is almost an orange-mint scent.

195/2 min – I didn’t want this one too strong as I was concerned about the orange. I need not have been. Once brewed, the scent continued. Upon sipping, I realized that this tea reminds me of orange Tic Tac infused oolong! It was really good! I did end up enjoying this tea much more than I thought I would.

I tried this tea this morning as my wake up brew. The dry tea smells like berries (raspberries, blackberries, etc.) It’s very pleasant.

boiling 1.5 min – I went short on this one due to the frequent oversteeping I seem to manage on a fairly regular basis these days.

The aroma is deeper. I can smell the tea, which is vegetal and fruity at the same time. The taste is pretty good. I can still make out the black currant without trouble. It’s not overly sweet. The tea did become a bit too vegetal for me, but it’s not taking over the tea. It’s not an overly complex tea, which is nice.

This was the second choice for my recent Chi of Tea order. I seem to have an odd relationship with vanilla flavoured teas. I really want to like them. Like, really really want to, but the ones I’ve tried so far in my life have all been good, but rather on the somewhat too sweet side of things. I want something a little more subtle than that, so apparently this means that I’ll be trying out vanilla blacks as I come across them.

The leaves and the tea after steeping smell really nice. Radically different from my vanilla black from Whittards of Chelsea. This is darker, more robust, more powerful. More… everything, really. The Whittards positively pales in comparison. The aroma of this one, though, is strongly vanilla. Sweet and sort of raw in smell. I can actually sort of sense the rubber-y, leather-y texture and smell of a fresh vanilla pod (or as fresh as they can get from a Danish supermarket anyway). There’s a funny darkish sweetly side note as well, that is somewhat sharper than the sweet parts of the vanilla aroma. It actually reminds me of a particular sort of licorice sweeties that you can get here in Denmark, in spite of the fact that said sweeties have, to my knowledge, nothing to do with vanilla at all. But they smell exactly like this!

Yes! This is the sort of vanilla tea I want! I’m not getting a mouthful of something super-sweet and relatively artificial; I’m getting a mouthful of tea that tastes like vanilla. It’s… It’s strongly flavoured, strong enough that I wouldn’t be able to point out the origin of the base if I didn’t know what it was, but it doesn’t overpower the tea. It’s more vanilla pod than vanilla-y, really. I think that’s what appeals to me so much.

The cream aspect is there as well. Each sip feels much thicker than it is, as if there has actually been added some sort of dairy product to the cup. Which is something I do only very rarely indeed. It doesn’t really give a flavour on its own that I can find, but it adds significantly to the bigger picture and the experience of the cup.

This is definitely beating Whittards’ vanilla black spectacularly into the ground. I’m very impressed with this, it’s a definite re-purchase. And so far, it’s also my Perfect Vanilla candidate.

I don’t feel entitled to give this a number rating, but I don’t know how to review it without the rating, so please feel free to ignore the number.

This is not my type of tea, but it is probably good for those who like Pu-erh. (I’m fairly particular about what I like in tea——my tastes are not refined, but I am picky.)

This tea has the earthy scent, and also tastes somewhat earthy, which I don’t enjoy. However, it is a somewhat pleasant tea to drink.

I’ve only steeped it once, so far, and I am surprised at how flavorful it is with such a quick steeping. I prefer it with a touch of milk, but no sugar.

The presentation of this tea is my favorite! It is soooo adorable & just seeing the little hearts is enough to cheer up anyone!

So, while this is not at all my type of tea, it would probably be a good choice for people who are interested in Pu-erh teas, or it would make a great gift for tea lovers.

Thanks to Chi of Tea for the sample!

I’ve quite enjoyed this one, and after tonight it also has the boyfriend stamp of approval.

He notes that the orange aroma is strong in the dry leaves but not so much after steeping, but then it’s strong in the flavour instead.

I agree with that, but that’s also what I’ve seen in NBT’s orange pu-erh.

The crysanthemum is an extra aspect in this one, obviously, in comparison with NBT’s orange pu-erh, and for someone who’s not really a great fan of floral scented stuff, it’s actually a quite controlled one. It doesn’t really cross completely over into soap or perfume-like qualities, which is a good thing. It doesn’t get to be too much, but stays at a level where it’s an interesting aspect of the flavour.

I still don’t know, however, if it’s interesting enough, and I’m still leaning heavily towards the flower-less NBT. I can, however, deeply recommend this one, and I can totally see myself getting another round of this one in the future, just for the sake of shaking things up a bit.

So, Steepsterites! I gave in. I’m a sucker for world wide flat shipping rates, especially when it turns out the actual tea isn’t very expensive either. I was somewhat amused at my order number being so low and containing so many 0s too. :)

Obviously I just received my order today and now have a fair selection of Chi of Tea in my cupboard, including even two bonus samples, one of which looks very interesting and the other… well… pokes it we’ll see. (If nothing else, it’ll be an experience)

I’m starting with this one, because this is the tea that got my attention first. It’s no secret that I’m fond of orange flavoured pu-erh and apparently this means that I find an urge to try everything of the sort that becomes available to me. I’m not a great fan of floral things, however, so there is a bit of head-scratching going on over this combination. Not that I find it a bizarre or strange combination at all; in fact it sounds very plausible to me, but I’m sort of wondering what I’ll think of it, considering the fact that I’m having expectations of both like and dislike. It feels very strange to actually expect ambivalence.

The aroma of the dry leaves is much sweeter than my NBT orange pu-erh. That one is more zest-y, while this one seems a little more fruity. CoT says that there are mandarine notes in it, and I can definitely agree with that. It does lean more towards mandarine than the NBT does. CoT smells sort of like the girly little sister to the NBT. All sweet and well behaved, with dolls and miniature tea sets.

After steeping, the fruit is taking a little more of a background role, letting the flowers come forward. It’s a quite mild aroma, rather discreet, actually. The notes of flowers and the notes of fruit mingle quite well, though, and it smells like a very natural combination at this point. There is a touch of creamyness somewhere in there as well. Just a small bit that makes me think of sweets.

Unfortunately, Little Sister is just a wee bit TOO well behaved, and the first sip put me in mind of a bubble bath. It doesn’t actually taste like soap, but it tastes sort of like a bubble bath might smell. (Yes, I know, I have confused senses!) I had rather hoped that she would be the sort to only be well behaved on the outside, while successfully shifting the blame for all her naughty activities away from herself.

In other words, the flavour is quite floral. There’s still the fruit in there, definitely discernable as a sweet citrus, but it’s so mingled in with the flowers that I can’t really pick it out individually. What little I can tell, however, is that it seems to be staying quite firmly in the mandarin camp.

The tea itself shines through wonderfully. It’s still mostly scenting and flavouring, but underneath I can really feel that there is pu erh, and not just some random unimportant base tea, because there has to be something to base the flavouring on. I like that. I like that it still feels like I’m actually drinking tea and that’s a huge factor in how I form my opinions on flavoured teas, I think. That’s probably why I tend to like more subtly flavoured stuff like many of the Kusmis and such.

It’s hard to form a conclusion here. I’m generally rather pleased with the way this is flavoured and the way it smells and so on and so forth, but I cannot let go of the bubble bath association. I think I come closest to an actual opinion by saying that I like this, but I like the big brother-y orange pu-erh from NBT better, and I think I might be sticking to that one as my standard orange pu-erh.

(Also, one of these days I’m going to have to agree with myself on how to spell puerh!)

Steep Information:
Amount: 2 tsp (entire sample)
Water: 2 c boiling water
Tool: my grandmother’s Bee House Ceramic Round Teapot
Steep Time: a little over 3 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: vanilla
Steeped Tea Smell: vanilla
Flavor: lightly vanilla, full black tea
Body: Full
Aftertaste: astringent, a little bitter
Liquor: opaque dark brown

A basic flavored black tea, I got the vanilla but not really the cream flavor.

Pictures: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2011/02/chi-of-tea-company-loose-leaf-black-tea.html

I got this as one of the three free samples from Chi of Tea. Dry, the leaves smell very strongly of peach flavouring – it’s quite overpowering.

I used just over one teaspoon for about 200ml water and the colour of the liquor has come out looking good – a gold colour. The taste, unfortunately, is disappointing. The peach is very strong and overwhelms the oolong base. Also, the oolong base seems to lack body and overall is too light.

I’m glad I got to try this but it just isn’t my cup of tea.

Second steep now!

This has all the lovely characteristics of the first steep, and the flavour is not lightening up at all. I’m getting a slightly malty flavour as well. I’m going to put the rating up. This tea seriously deserves it :D

These little hearts are too cute!

This is my first pu-erh and I’m a little frightened to try it, I admit, becuase people sometimes say it tastes fishy and smells like wet dog, but you hear others raving about its greatness. So, understandably a little apprehensive.

Anyway, It is a deep gold-red colour and I am definitely picking up the ‘earthy’ scent everyone talks about. I’m suprised by the size of the steeped leaves though – they are fairly large, I would have expected them to be rather small, but even after a 30-second rinse I still have quite a bit of dust in the bottom of my teacup.

First sip. The taste semms to be very earthy and deep and it’s a very savoury tea. I’m not really loving it at this point.

A few sips later. This is growing on me , I think. Yes, definitely. It’s very good and has very little aftertaste which is pleasant.

Alas, I am now at the bottom of my cup. Off I go for another steep…